This thing is 100% God please don't let me partner with someone who will destroy my life, 100% "time and chance", 100% personal choice, 100% luck of the draw, 100% shining your eyes, 100% divine favor abbl.
See how the numbers don't add up? Exactly. Even me I don't know.

You'll hope for the best, then do your best, knowing that while the doing doesn't guarantee anything, it doesn't hurt to do what you can to stack the odds in your favor. Your hope is not in your efforts cos you know you can do everything right & still not get your desired outcome

Watch and pray. As in shine your eyes and put your trust in God. Simultaneously. We all know people who made the best plans yet failed & people who didn't plan any plan, yet succeeded. We've all been both at different times too.

We're a meaning making species. It's how we make sense of the world. We learn that 1+1=2 & we fully expect it to always be so. Then we experience something that contradicts what we hold true & have a disorienting dilemma. Life doesn't always add up. We learn that eventually.

"But they told me if I do A my life will turn out good & I'll have B" So you study hard then find out that doesn't guarantee anything. Cue confusion. That's a disorienting dilemma. Should you then stop studying? Should we all stop doing the things that are predictors of success?

We experience that and draw different conclusions. One person might say studying is a scam & start to tell everyone that. Another might internalize it as a personal failure & never recover. Or blame others for their failure. It was the school or the way the questions were written

Or the person who did study & did pass takes credit. Then writes a book about their personal success. Which isn't a bad thing. It's the part where they insinuate that those who failed did so cos they didn't do what the successful person did. We've probably all been this person.

We tell our stories of success as personal victories and a reflection of our good choices. But when we fail, we remember how it was due to this that or the other.
Life is sha not linear sha. And even at our best, we're really just lucky. And blessed.

"There, but for the grace of God, go I"